Video Calls on the iPhone 4 and Android

Now that I've had some more time with the Apple iPhone 4 and know more people who have them; and gotten a replacement unit for my Sprint HTC Evo 4G, I've been able to do a bit of video calling with each. I've noticed both good things and bad on both platforms.

Video calling from mobile phones has gotten a big push lately with the Sprint HTC Evo 4G coming with a front-facing camera and the ability to download video-calling applications; and Apple introducing FaceTime and a similar camera as part of the the iPhone 4. I talked about the difference in the new platforms yesterday.

Now that I've had some more time with the Apple iPhone 4
and know more people who have them; and gotten a replacement unit for my
Sprint HTC Evo 4G, I've been able to do a bit of video calling with each. I've noticed both
good things and bad on both platforms.

Details after the jump. Let's start with the iPhone 4. In general, this was really quite simple: You just dial a number using the standard cell phone connection. When you get connected, the phone pops up a menu with a number of choices, including FaceTime if you are on a Wi-Fi connection.

Press the button and you get connected.

You can hit the swap button in the lower right hand corner to transmit from the rear-facing camera instead of the front one; or just rotate the camera to rotate the image. Here's how it looked to a friend of mine:

In general, this was quite easy. The video quality was quite good, and the audio worked well throughout. The images were extremely sharp, though I noticed an occasional stutter.

On the other hand, actually placing a phone call on AT&T has been a bit problematic. I've noticed some time for calls to go through. That could be due to overuse of the network here in midtown Manhattan, but it seems worse on the iPhone 4 than on my earlier iPhone 3 or on a BlackBerry. I'm not sure if this is due to the antenna issues that are getting so much attention. It also seems to be burning through my battery life, but I haven't had it long enough to judge for sure. In both cases, the people I know with iPhone 4s in other places don't seem to be having those issues.

It only works over WiFi, so you must have both kinds of connections to make it work. Again, you can move from AT&T to a FaceTime call, but you can't move from a video call to a voice call over AT&T. And for now, at least, it can only connect to other iPhone 4 users with FaceTime. That limits the audience.

Sprint Evo with Android

On the Sprint HTC Evo 4G, I've been able to make video calls work with two different applications: Qik, and Fring.

Sprint installs Qik by default, though I had to download a new version to make video calls. But once installed, Qik lets you do that to other Qik users, as well as record and share videos and video messages.

I was able to connect this via Sprint's CDMA network to other Qik users.

This worked in both vertical and horizontal modes.

In general, I didn't find the video or audio quality to be as good as on FaceTime, but I didn't expect it would since I was connected via 3G. But, it was easy to set up and use, and it worked pretty well for me.

An alternative is to use Fring, which has the advantage of integrated contacts from the Fring service, your inbox, and other services, including, AIM, Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, and Skype. (Of course, most of the time, you'll use these for basic messaging.)

I was able to pick a user, and then choose a text, audio, or video call

Video calls to other Fring users generally looked pretty good, especially given that they were connected over a 3G connection, just like Qik.

But the best thing was being able to connect to Skype users (since there are more of them). Unfortunately, I only had sporadic success with that. I often noticed a substantial delay in the audio connections; sometimes the video wouldn't connect; and when it did, the video quality wasn't quite as good as with a direct Fring connection.

Both Android solutions have one big advantage over FaceTime: They work via a mobile phone connection, so you can connect anywhere. And Fring's ability to connect to Skype and other services is a big plus: There are a lot of Skype users.

But FaceTime was the easiest to use with direct integration with the phone's contact list, and offered notably better video quality (even when I had Wi-Fi connections on the Evo).

I'm not sure that video calling will ever be
nearly as
popular as voice calling. For one thing, you wouldn't want to do it
while driving. Even
if you use a hands-free connection - as you should -- audio calls are
distracting enough. But it is fun to see family and friends - and as
the growth of Skype and other platforms have proved, people like doing
it on their PCs. Moving video calls to the mobile phone is the logical
next step.

Michael J. Miller's Forward Thinking Blog: forwardthinking.pcmag.com
Michael J. Miller is chief information officer at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm. From 1991 to 2005, Miller was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, responsible for the editorial direction, quality and presentation of the world's largest computer publication.
Until late 2006, Miller was the Chief Content Officer for Ziff Davis Media, responsible for overseeing the editorial positions of Ziff Davis's magazines, websites, and events. As Editorial Director for Ziff Davis Publishing since 1997, Miller took an active role in...
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